Glass
by x Varda x
Summary: Rodney activates something he can't see.


**Glass**

Rodney's laptop beeped at him making him jump and sit up where his face had been smushed into the keyboard. He swiped at the drool that had accumulated during his impromptu nap and studied the screen through bleary eyes.

The programme had completed and showed him the source of the energy drain over on the West Pier.

He glanced at the clock and blinked tiredly. It was nearly 2am. He got up and vowed to go there, turn it off, then go to bed.

Grabbing his tablet and a tool kit, he headed out.

xxx

"Hmm," Rodney said as he studied the device in the centre of the lab. It was about waist high and cylindrical. It bore no markings or lights, it was just dull brown like the rest of the lab. There were a few unmarked buttons on a small console.

"Useless Ancient labelling," he muttered. It didn't help the problem but made him feel a bit better.

He plugged his tablet in and studied the data to figure out a way to turn it off. It was draining too much energy to leave it running.

He found a likely pathway in the code and explored further. "Uh oh." Red text and error messages in Ancient and English filled the screen. He was too tired to react quickly enough to all the messages and the screen suddenly went blank and a humming noise started from the device.

Rodney backed away nervously and gritted his teeth as there was a sound so low and loud it made his chest vibrate. Try as he might to get his tablet to respond and reboot, it remained blank even though it was still plugged in.

Suddenly a bright light flashed out of the device, blinding Rodney for a moment and he closed his eyes. He felt something take hold of both his wrists and force his arms away from his body. He dropped the tablet and cried out in shock as he was pushed back into the wall. A heavy pressure formed over his chest and crushed him against the wall until he struggled to breathe. He opened watering eyes and saw nothing but the lab, brightly lit and still humming loudly. He glanced at his wrists and saw indents in the skin like something was holding him, and it felt like it too, but he couldn't see what it was.

Just as his vision was greying, the pressure released him and the lights in the lab dimmed. He coughed and slid down the wall to sit on the floor as he sucked in rapid breaths clutching at his chest.

"What the hell was that?"

He rubbed his sore wrists which had bands of red bruises forming and retrieved his tablet with the intention of calling it a night and coming back the next day to figure the place out when he was a bit more awake.

xxx

Rodney had some impressive bruising around his wrists the next morning as well as some painful ribs.

"So an invisible force pushed you into a wall?" Carson asked incredulously as he wrapped bandages around Rodney's wrists. "What time did you say it was again?"

Rodney furrowed his brow. "It was late but I wasn't imagining it otherwise what hurt me?"

"Aye, well these are definitely real." Carson tied off the second bandage. "You said you hurt your chest too?"

Rodney put a hand in the middle of his chest. "Yes, here. I couldn't breathe for a bit."

Carson examined him, gently palpating Rodney's ribs where Rodney held his shirt up and grimaced. "I can't feel any breaks but they might be bruised. Should clear up in a few days or couple of weeks at most."

Rodney got some painkillers and strict instructions to take it easy and not go investigating mysteries alone in the middle of the night. "I know you're going to ignore my advice but I have to give it anyway."

Rodney nodded, thanked Carson and left.

"Aye."

xxx

Rodney and John entered the lab later that day. John was in full off world gear including P90.

"Expecting a war?" Rodney asked, eyeing the gun nervously.

"Can't be too careful with invisible hostile forces."

"I don't know if it's hostile. Besides that implies a degree of sentience."

"Well it hurt you."

Rodney's mouth turned down. "Don't remind me. Fried my favourite tablet too."

Rodney plugged his new tablet into the device but there was no response. He gave it some power but still nothing. "This could be a problem."

John was pointing his gun at a threatening area of plain wall. "Did you break it?"

"No, I did _not_ break it." Rodney snapped. "If anything, it broke me."

Rodney tried for some time to get the interface to activate to no avail. He even pressed the buttons on the device directly but nothing happened.

A while later Weir called them on the radio that there had been reports of people encountering invisible objects all over city and some people had been injured.

The investigation just got urgent.

Rodney tapped his radio, "Radek, meet me in the control room. We need to locate the source of these invisible objects. There's no power in the lab I was in last night so I don't think it's here."

Just as they were about to leave the lab, a cylinder came up out of the central console. Rodney hummed and reached inside grabbing what it gave them. "Glasses?" he said turning them over in his hand. They looked like sunglasses but had a thicker frame.

Rodney was about to put them on but John quickly grabbed them and put them on instead, to Rodney's complaint of "Hey!"

They waited a few moments, Rodney looking unhappy while John frowned as the lenses turned clear.

"See anything?" Rodney asked.

"No."

"Feel anything different?"

"No. Let's head up to the control room."

As they headed out the lab John suddenly raised his P90 and pointed it down the corridor, using his other arm to stop Rodney from going further. Rodney huffed out a pained breath where his ribs were still sore from earlier. "What is it?"

"You don't see it?"

"All I see is you making threats to thin air."

"Stay here." John stepped forward and appeared to circle around an area on the floor, looking at the empty space intensely. He moved the gun barrel forward in a prodding motion and there was a quiet clang.

"What's going on?" Rodney had his scanner out but it wasn't showing anything.

John came back and handed Rodney the glasses. Rodney slipped them on and where there had been nothing before, a metal form suddenly appeared in the middle of the corridor. He moved the glasses away from his eyes, then back over, the form disappearing and reappearing as he did so. It looked like a robot of some type, several metal arms and legs came off the chassis and there was a rudimentary head on top with a few blinking lights. Rodney glanced at the ends of the arms and saw pincer like claws and his wrists reminded him they hurt by giving out a dull throb.

Rodney went over to it. "Careful." John warned. "I can't see it now."

Rodney fiddled with the scanner putting it through several frequencies but was still unable to see the robot on the scans. He reached out to touch it and suddenly it came to life, arms and legs unfolding at an alarming speed. It pushed Rodney over and grabbed his wrists again. It was more terrifying now that he could see his assailant.

"McKay!" John cried, unable to shoot what he couldn't see.

Rodney struggled but had to stop as his already bruised wrists were crushed again in the pincer grip. A device came out the robot and settled over Rodney's chest, pushing him down and his ribs creaked. Then just as quickly as it started, it let him go and then walked away up the corridor.

John retrieved the scanner Rodney had dropped and helped him up. "Are you okay?"

Rodney held his right arm over his chest. "It's a lot scarier when I can see it." He huffed a laugh and winced. "We need to follow it." He handed the glasses back to John. "None of the settings on this scanner can detect it. I need to interface the scanner with it to see if I can detect the frequency it's using to hide from sight."

xxx

"This is really unnerving." Rodney said with wide eyes as John tracked the invisible robot deeper and deeper under the waterline in Atlantis. The corridors were mostly dark as no power could reach down here through damaged conduits that it had never been worth the time to repair. "Did I tell you my wrist hurts?"

"Once or twice." John said as he kept looking ahead with his gun aimed and finger on the trigger. The P90 light cut a small path of light through the darkness ahead.

Rodney held the scanner in his left hand and used it to rub his sore chest with a grimace. His right hand was now useless and held immobile against his chest in a sling John had pulled from his vest first aid kit.

Their progress was being watched from the control room high overhead after John had updated Dr. Weir as to what they were doing. As there was only one pair of glasses they decided not to send any more teams in case the robots started attacking them.

John went down another set of stairs and Rodney sighed. "You do realise we'll have to go back up all these again as the transporters down here don't work?"

John ignored him then stopped and held up a fist.

"What is it?" Rodney asked, annoyed at the fearful wobble in his betraying voice.

"It's stopped."

"Curled up like before? Do I need to go and poke it again?"

"No, it's looking around."

Rodney sagged in relief.

"Okay." John started walking again and turned right going through a doorway. "Whoa."

Rodney turned into the room and his eyes widened.

Although there was little light, alcove after alcove on both sides of the large room could be seen, reaching further than the P90 light could show.

Rodney swallowed, brandishing his scanner like a talisman. "Are they all…"

"No, about half of them are empty."

"And the other half?"

"Let's just say, you should be glad there's only one pair of glasses."

Rodney walked forward, searching for a console to interface. There were panels beside each of the alcoves. "Are there two empty alcoves next to each other anywhere?"

"Here."

Rodney plugged his tablet in and sat on the floor. He pecked at the screen one handed. "That's interesting."

"A way to shut them off?"

"No, it says they were designed to fight the wraith, but they couldn't be controlled and they have trouble differentiating between wraith and human life signs." He waved his hand towards himself with a grimace, "Hence the feeding hand wrist grabbing thing and invasive chest scanning."

"I'm more interested in shutting them off. We can have a history lesson later."

Rodney switched screens on the interface and started digging through the code looking for the 'off' command.

"One's coming over to investigate, can you speed it up a little?" John's finger tensed on the trigger of the P90.

"Going as fast as I can with one working hand, which I might add, also hurts a lot!"

"Work faster!" John shot a bullet out the P90, making Rodney jump. The bullet could be heard ricocheting. "I can't stop it!" John said, "The bullets could hit us."

"I'm nearly there."

There was a moan and a cry and Rodney looked up in time to see John floating in the air, held aloft by an invisible force, he hit out and his fists were quickly bloodied and bruised, he grabbed his combat knife which clanged against metal. Rodney had no idea if John's efforts were doing anything and he could only watch horrified as his friend was tossed aside and hit the wall at the back of one of the alcoves and fell down unconscious.

Rodney ran over to him, finding a pulse but unable to wake him. "Come on, Sheppard, I can't defend myself and stop the robots at the same time with only one hand!" In response, John slumped down further. "Well if that's all you're going to say…" Rodney grabbed the glasses and put them on, then glanced around. His heart clenched as he saw there were at least 5 robots regarding the both of them.

He held up his hand, "Nice friendly robots, we're not wraith."

They didn't move, so he got up and shuffled around them, going back to his tablet where it was hanging from the wall. He swallowed as the robots turned to follow his progress and he worked as fast as he could to find the off command. Guns and knives were useless so he would be completely defenceless if they started to attack.

"Ah ha! Finally." He located the basic operating system buried under all the code and finally found the off command, "Just a little bit more."

Something caught the corner of his eye and he looked up in time to see a robot standing over him, he would've thought it was glowering if it had a face, it reached forward and grabbed him by the neck in one of its pincers, pulling him to his feet. Rodney held onto the tablet with his left hand for dear life and with great pain, he pulled his right arm from the sling and tapped the approximate location on the screen of where the off command had just appeared. Just as the robot tightened its grip cutting off Rodney's air, the robot powered down and its pincers relaxed open. Rodney fell and coughed as he curled up and gasped for breath.

He tapped his radio and wheezed out in a whisper, "We need… help. Robots are… shut down." Then slipped unconscious.

xxx

Rodney woke up in the infirmary to Carson standing over him adjusting the lines connected to him. He tried to speak but all that came out was an airy sound and his throat felt like it was full of razor blades.

"Rodney!" Carson said, "Don't speak, your neck got badly hurt."

Rodney closed his mouth and sunk into the bed. He mouthed, "Sheppard?"

Carson stood back so Rodney could see his friend lying asleep in the bed next to his. "He'll be fine. Minor concussion, bumps and bruises. His hands were a bit banged up."

Rodney flexed the fingers on his left hand where it lay beside him, it felt warm where there was a bandage around it which also went around his wrist and halfway up his forearm. His right arm felt heavier and warmer and he looked down his right side to see it was propped up on a pillow beside him, enclosed in a cast.

Carson saw where his eyes had drifted and said, "Your wrist was broken in two places. We had to pin it, but it should be fine in a few weeks."

"Weeks!?" Rodney wheezed and flinched.

"Shh, yes."

"Could've been worse," a new voice said. "Imagine what would've happened if you'd broken both of them."

Rodney glared over at John where their conversation had woken him up. He opened his mouth to speak but John cut him off," And you can't complain about it either."

Rodney shut his mouth and his lips thinned to an unhappy line.

John continued, "Don't worry, Radek was here earlier and set you up with a tablet that can speak for you."

Carson handed the tablet to Rodney from the bedside table.

Rodney one finger typed into it and then a distinctly high pitched female voice said, "I'm going to make you cut up my food for the next month." Rodney looked aghast and typed, "What the hell?"

Carson and John were trying and failing to hide their mirth.

"Sorry Rodney," John said sounding amused, "Radek said they could only find one voice on the computer.

Rodney sighed and sat back, praying his throat healed quickly so could berate John and Radek into next year.

_Fin_

_A/N – I love Pokemon Go and this was inspired by the augmented reality stuff - like Google Glass :)_


End file.
